How is magic implemented by the militaries of your setting?

How is magic implemented by the militaries of your setting?

Depends on the military

Casters aren't common and most aren't powerful enough to meaningfully affect a large scale battle. They're mostly used as diviners and special forces.

It's outlawed and feared due to its destructive nature. Few that do use it can turn the tides of wars.

Militarized werewolf shock infantry, the state has hunting parties capture feral werewolves, has state wizards fashion special collars that return the subjects mind to them, then throws plate armor on them and uses them to lead assaults.

The only caster common enough to make up actual military forces is the Adept. The thing is though the Adept is already an ENORMOUS improvement when it comes to medicine and makes battlefield deaths far less common.

In my population statistics the population is made up of the following:
>60% commoners
>20% experts
>10% warriors
>4.5% adepts
>4.5% aristocrats
>1% PC classes

Also to determine level you do the following:
>Population/(2^level)
Meaning 50% is level 1, 25% is level 2, 12.5% is level 3, and so on. This means a country of 2 million have 705 level 8 and up adepts meaning a large access to level 3 spells including Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Disease, Remove Curse, Neutralize Poison. Also level 3 and up clerics, oracles, etc. which make up another 300 or so to bring it to 1000 individuals, or .05% of the population.

Adepts are often attached to rear units as they can essentially work miracles on soldiers, and supported by magic items created for the military (like pearls of power) can see to dozens or hundreds of cases. Weaker adepts can handle lesser cases. Also this doesn't take into account stuff like wands, scrolls, etc. that the military should be making or buying to keep around.

Basically magic makes war MUCH more sustainable because battlefield deaths are less common. Manpower isn't as easily depleted by an enormous degree.

Very sparingly. Tens of millions of people across the continent died when something historically referred to as 'The Deep' ate the old empire. Its largely agreed that use of magic lead to The Deep, but no one is entirely sure under what circumstances or how much is safe.

There is a real concern that The Deep is still hanging around somewhere, and we dont have as much leeway to use magic as the Old Empire did before the Deep returns again. Magic users largely avoid fighting magic users for this reason. The risks of mutual destruction are too great.

In the Burning Wheel game, I'm currently running, magic isn't really used, except for some enchanted weapons being used by certain units. The other kinds of magic in the setting are mostly unsuitable
>sorcery
the strain sorcery puts on the body means mages can only use a couple moderately strong spells before needing to rest, as such it's not practical for extended battles, skirmishers or guerrilla forces can make better use of it though.
>summoning
angels and demons can be very powerful allies in a battle, however, the prices paid (and how badly it can go if the summoning ritual fails) mean it's kind of a desperate move.
>spirit binding
nature spirits tend to work subtly when used their main use tends to be reconnaissance as opposed to helping in the fight itself (who better to ask about the location of the enemy's base than the spirits of the forest they're hiding in)

I liked what I think Malazan kinda did with the wmd tier archmages, one side having one and the other not would be equivalent of having the maxim gun against spear chucking tribals, both sides having them cancel each other out though, so they don't actually do anything for the battles between two large political entities but both sides need them or they're fucked

By improving "morale", charism, strenght etc.
Basically some kind of buff and it's implied that it's not really magic, just humans believing that there are magic.
Think about the irl druids when the romans decided to attack them.

Magi make up 1-2% of the population

All the professional troops wether they be Personal troops of the nations lords or the state are usually equipped with various enchanted equipment that will help them in combat thanks to enchanters.
Combat Mages are also present in a noticeable capacity with their role being based on their magical ranking and magic school theyre skilled in.
For example certain magi are able to project sound and light across great distances creating communication networks. Earth magic can be used to construct or destroy fortifications water magic can be used to divert the flow of rivers, fire is able to burn out woodlands a guerilla force may be Hiding in. Healing magi self explanatory

>Healing
The most grievous wounds or wounds that have become severely infected are healed with magic. Anything that isn't deemed life threatening is tended to by regular physicians. This allows the magic users to not waste any of their energy and saves far more lives than just healing any wounded in sight.
>Offense
Enchanted weapons, enchanted armor, enchanted bows and arrows, etc. Magic users are far too vulnerable to have them fighting outright on the battlefield. Sure, a single wizard could probably slaughter a few hundred soldiers with fire balls from hell and lightning and shit. But all it takes to kill the wizard is a single archer sneaking in close enough to snipe them. So the magic users stay out of the fighting and basically just enhance the soldiers themselves in every way possible.
>Defense
This is where the shit gets goooood. Basically, if you have enough of the right kind of magic users you can essentially create the perfect battleground in your favor. You can raise flat plains up into mountains so you have the high ground. Collapse the ground around you and flood it to create a moat. Hollow out a mountain to create a fortress. etc. etc. etc. Not to mention enchanting the shit out of everything. Illusions to drive the enemy mad. Constant loud shrieking and howling to prevent them from getting any sleep. Swarms of biting insects that infect them with incurable diseases. The list goes on and on, all you have to do is be creative enough and to take their limitations into account. A wizard can kill far more soldiers buy sending tens of thousands of magical fleas that transform into maggots to infest all of their food supplies, thus starving them to death, than by casting a fireball at their camp once every hour or so.

They're on the factory lines enchanting military goods. Beware mustard gas attacks in shells enchanted with Blastshatter.

Between spellcasters being somewhat rare and spellcasting be fairly limited on a per-day basis, spellcasting is very ill-suited to the multi-hour long engagements that full armies tend to get themselves into.

Which is just another way of saying that spellcasting is still better used for utility rather than damage. Divinations to discern enemy locations is amazingly useful, summoning huge monsters that require elites to take down, using illusions to mislead the opponent, using invisibility/teleport for assassinations and infiltrations, enchantments for mind-controlling officers, etc. Magic is VERY good at causing havoc and chaos in an otherwise organized army. Shy of assassinating the enemy leader (probably smart enough to have adequate defenses), a handful of mages are unlikely to win you the war single-handedly, but they can definitely give you an insane force-multiplier.

To devastating effect prior to the discovery of orichalcum which can be used to resist or break all but the most powerful magic. Djinn magic isn't effected so djinnbinding is the new fashion, though Djinn rarely leave anything worth conquering so they're kept by large empires as a sort of MAD setup.

This.

One group uses magic as support while another has absolutely zero magic users in their ranks as they see magic as an abomination.

This

Sages- the type of magic user you're allowed to play- are healers and support characters, providing buffs and repairing equipment magically.

Most armies have a lot of them, buy they prefer not to sit on the front lines.

Shit taste. "Hur dur magic is so rare and special and spooky"

I wonder how it must feel for you to be a laughing stock.

For anything but artillery. They have cannons and culverins for that.

A pair of magical eyes over the battlefield and radio-analoque communication already improve things much better than exposing your wizards to the enemies' sakers by having them casting fireballs. That assumes your conjurers actually can do such. Most of the seers are gobbled up by the imperial bureocraucy, but a few are available for important campaigns.

Also , with trolls, .

These.

I couldn't find a picture of it but in FF12 there were mages where maintaining a giant shield around a fortress defending the troops against the airships

auguries, divinations and familiar spirits used as scouts, and counter spells to rpevent or mitigate the enemy doing the same.

Pre battle sacrifices and invocations to buff top units.

Defensive warding of key positions individuals.

Seige bombardment where cannon and trebs have trouble going.

'Mass' spells like confusion, weakness, and fear to disable chunks of enemy foot soldiers to weaken enemy lines.

Fighter/wizard hybrids will often wade into the middle and form a sort of mobile magic bubble of counterspells and psychological attacks (stolen directly from Artesia, love that shit)

Disease control, gear enhancement, and general quality of life improvements for those who can afford it.

In my setting magic lore isn't rare, but the mana to power it is, so all magic except the little petty stuff is subject to harsh resource management. The exceptions are those super rare individuals that power flows through naturally who walk across the sky flinging fire and lightning and prolasping anus at every turn.

This is a great low/medium fantasy divide, and further down the 1% of PCs can be divided into 60% mundane (rogues, fighters, barbarians), 30% divine (clerics, paladins, druids, rangers) and 10% arcane (wizards, sorcerers, necromancers).
This could work.

But I think war's won with logistics and morale first, the army that runs out of food and fight first will rout and lose, or mutiny against the general and disband/desert, so the casters (which would be about 1-5% of an army) will not affect the result too much unless they're level 10+. War would still be dangerous, deadly and expensive, and would maybe be waged a bit less 'cause magic is expensive and wasting it on battlefields could be a desperate move.

If there are 1in5 PC casters, there would be no large formations but small specialised hit squads that would be basically Mordheim D&D, which is also okay.